Excuse me? I'm not calling anybody &quot;names&quot; as I want, merely expressing my opinion on the London 2012 Olympic Games. I'm glad Vancouver still manage to utilise their stadium but I think an outlay of Â£9.3bn for some grunting athletes to push themselves in a new UK stadium is absolutely mental, criminal even, when we have so many other serious problems that need addressing such as poverty and homelessness - on which we spend &gt;Â£20bn already per year. As mentioned by another poster, businesses are going to be hindered through even simple things like traffic on the road! London and the south will be in absolute meltdown. Then the oxbow lake special of pollution and &quot;sustainable ecoism&quot; - smog city!! I could go on!

As I said before. Vancouver had the same critics and opponents before the games took place. Stuff such as spending to be considered lavish, ineffective and money better spent else where. We also had business being completely distrupted (distruption is 50-60 blocks long!) at one of the main Vancouver corridors due to 3+ years of new Skytrain construction prior to the games. Distrupting traffic and parking to these businesses for the entire duration. Downtown Vancouver along with the Ski to Sky highway (the only highway to Whistler) was blocked off to permit holders only during the games!!!

These voices largely went away after the games. Tourism and marketing for the city generated great positive feedback. Bar/pub businesses was largely well compensated for as people flooded downtown despite closure to private vehicles. Public transit usage was up ever since due to the traffic closure and the passenger volume experienced during the games. Even Whistler turned out with profit despite main highway access being largely closed off to anyone but Olympic officials, athletes, anyone who've paid $2k a night for Whistler accomodations or $1k for a ticket to watch some event.

Obviously it's because the rare successful execution (budget, time, logistics, and maybe Gold medal-wise) and the great atmosphere that ended up prevailing by the end of the game. But you never know whether it a general success or failure until it's all over.